Ferngully: The Rise of Darkness
by Light Derived from Darkness
Summary: Just when the forest is beginning to heal itself, Hexxus is released once more and has an even more powerful machine under his control. Will they be able to stop him from destroying Ferngully, or will his vow of vengeance finally be fulfilled? Please R&R.
1. Hexxus Revived

_It had taken what felt like an eternity, but slowly the forest had all but entirely recovered from Hexxus's second onslaught against it. The bodies of those who had been lost had long since been drawn back into the earth to make way for new life, and the plants that had been torn and broken had slowly made their way back up towards the sky. It had been a grueling, and mournful process in part, but the rainforest was beginning to look like it had before the humans had unleashed the spirit of destruction from his supposedly infinite slumber._

_Though the events that had nearly brought down Old Highrise had managed to give Zak enough backing to have the logging camp shut down, but just a few years later another one planted itself at the base of Mount Warning. While the forest had been recovering and replenishing its once beautiful landscapes, a new crew began to hack away at the distant, unseen reaches of the forest once more, cutting down trees that had barely been able to make up for the ones that had been devoured but a handful of seasons earlier. And like the trees that were slowly growing back, so too had technology grown in the human world, and a newer and more monstrous Leveler lumbered across the earth, it's noise and continuous bellowing shaking the very foundations of Mount Warning itself. Its metal claws and grapplers tore into the ground below and tore whole trees in half with single wrenching twists, and heat spewed from its gapping gullet. The machine in its entirety looked more like some creation of warfare than of terrain and tree leveling, but regardless it crept and seethed along the barren outskirts of the rainforest, bidding its time as the humans drank coffee in its shadow and, more ominously than they could have imagined, shook their spray cans of red paint._

_The misassumption that everyone had made before was that Hexxus had died when the seed of creation had sprouted within him, or at the very least had been rendered weakened and harmless, but in all truth he'd simply been bidding his own time within the sprawling tree Crysta had imprisoned him within. It had been just like in times before when Magi Lune had sentenced him to the same fate, and he'd waited within the rotting trunk of the tree, his rage sometimes causing the earth to groan and shudder from its roots. The tree itself decayed from the remnants of pollution that Hexxus had brought with him that kept him alive, and had slowly deteriorated his prison. He knew that soon enough he'd wear through the brittle bark and find the strength to find a way to escape entirely. _

_One day as he loomed within the hollowed innards of the tree, roaming the gutted remains of the former Leveler, he heard the growl of something echo over the canopy, and recognized the sound with a smirk as he peered out one of the few cracks in the bark, though the enchantment kept him from slithering through it._

"_Ahhh, the welcoming call of humans…" his hissed with a vile smirk, watching the smoke churn in the distance over the treetops. "And to think, those foolish fairies and creatures thought that the words of one measly human would convince all the rest of them to no longer damage this forest…"_

_He wound his wispy body up through the tree, so he could see better through some of the gaps up near the top. "And what a wonderful machine for me to possess, once that lovely pollution makes its way here to empower me…" he said, his voice holding a tone of longing. His form had once again been reduced to mere wisps of toxic smoke and venomous slime that could form humanoid eyes and mouths, but little else._

_With the little energy he'd managed to scrounge listening hungrily to the far-off machine, he changed the winds slightly outside with a sharp intake of breath through the largest gap he could find, shifting the billowing smoke towards him. He ravenously urged it towards him and fed upon it savagely when it finally spewed into the tree, and as this happened, his weakened form began to grow exponentially. His shriveled mass grew so large in fact that the tree began to twist and groan in continued agony, trying with all its might to keep him contained. But as more grimy pollution reached him within its dying masses, it became too much for the spell to handle, and the bark and wood of the tree splintered and fell away as it slowly and finally died. _

_Hexxus, now strong enough to do so, tore his way loose once a good share of the tree lay scattered unceremoniously upon the ground, curling into charred ribbons. "Finally free once more, free to kill whatever I desire to, and rid this putrid earth of all life…" he snarled with a malicious grin, his noxious breath turning the plants into withered and contorted shapes on the ground. Animals that had once been scampering innocently upon the earth and in the streams suddenly began to choke, and either fled from his presence or died attempting to. Hexxus relished in the suffering and death he was already causing, and trailed along, following the path of the smoke that had revived him towards the machine. Below him the cries of the horrified creatures echoed up in a chorus of despair. Hexxus chortled to himself as he twisted between the trees in a serpentine fashion, his onyx form caressing each leaf into a deadened husk. _

"_Soon enough, I'll see to it that what I began long ago is finished…" he whispered darkly, the toxins in his breath mixing with the smoke and giving it an acidic color. To the unaware humans in the distance, Hexxus blended in perfectly with the fumes and went unnoticed as he drew ever closer to their machine. "Just wait, Ferngully…I'll be there shortly to finish the vengeance I promised would come down upon you…"_


	2. Something's Amiss

Crysta could already feel there was something wrong, or at the very least off in the forest, though it seemed the others didn't share in her worry. It was, after all, a time of celebration with their forest slowly becoming the beautiful place it had been before Hexxus's onslaught. The other fairies also seemed exhausted from their continuous efforts to give life back to every tree and flower that had been plagued, and she didn't want to damper their revived happiness with suspicions and worries. Still, the winds carried a feel of unease with them and had shifted inexplicably recently. She flew along through the forest to see how everyone was doing, when suddenly her flight path with interrupted. Some dark suddenly blocked her path and startled her a moment, until she saw two wide eyes gapping at her.

"I am proud to report…I've crashed into only seven and a half trees today…" Batty said, having dropped down into her way with a goofy grin on his face. "Though, the sonic interference has been a bit debilitating lately…wonder what's up-" His speaking was interrupted as he began to suddenly spew out another radio transmission, emulating the person who seemed to be speaking through him. Crysta smiled at her friend; she found Batty very lovable, if a bit chatty and annoying sometimes. She knew it wasn't his fault that he acted this way sometimes. He blurted out something about half-off original prices (whatever those were) before becoming quiet once again. He looked at her somewhat bashfully; at times, he seemed entirely unaware that he'd become possessed by the radio transmissions that streamed through his battered head.

"Just be careful Batty, there are a lot of fairies and other creatures out and about today…" Crysta said with a smile, and Batty nodded enthusiastically. "I'm aware of that my friendly little fairy-bug, and it's all for the par-tay that's a-comin' up!" he said before he swooped up into the air…and into a tree. Crysta couldn't help but giggle as poor Batty recomposed himself after a brief fall and flew off again. She heard him run into yet another tree as she continued along her way, looking for Pips amongst the other fairies. It wasn't hard to find him, and he greeted her with his usual cocky grin. He was taking a rest up on a spotted mushroom, his arms behind his head in a casual position.

"Hey there, you're looking a little tense…" he said as she gently landed beside him. He stood up as her feet touched the faintly moist surface. "I don't think I've seen you relax fully once ever since what happened, but it's been two years now Crysta…" he said, with a slightly concerned tone of voice. "Especially lately; you seem a little paranoid and, I dunno, restless. You need to loose up a bit." He suddenly grabbed her wrist and dipped her down before she could react, a playful smirk on his face. "Want me to help you with that?"  
She grinned deviously and caused herself to vanish for a second, leaving only a luminescent echo of herself behind, and Pips was left to fall over onto the mushroom as she reappeared behind him, giggling a little as the spores of the mushroom came up in a thick powder when he landed. "I guess it's because of what Magi always told me, to enjoy the peace and happiness but to not forget there are still dangers out there…"

Pips got back onto his feet again, brushing some powder off his face and giving her a look before he spoke. "Ah come on now, Magi was wise but a worry-wart usually…"

"But she was right, Pips. She said there was always going to be danger and she was right. If she had been wrong then Hexxus would have never reappeared again…" she pointed out, and Pips sighed, blowing his fiery red hair out of his face. "I know that Crysta, and I know what almost happened was pretty scary, for all of us…but things are different now. Hexxus will stay trapped this time. I'm sure of it, and so is everybody else. The only one around here who doesn't think so is you," his smiled a bit again, this time a bit more calmly, though there was still a cocky gleam in his eyes. "Things are going to stay just fine this time around, take my word for it."

Crysta wanted to believe him so much, but no matter how much she told herself that Hexxus was never going to come back, the uneasiness never subsided. She supposed maybe it was just simple worry, a relentless want to stay alert, but something just hadn't felt right the last few days. Something that kept her up all night and gave her little peace, and she still didn't know what it was.

"You say that, but that's what Magi fbelieved the first time he was imprisoned, for a long time, until just before he came back. Then she started to believe again that things weren't right…" she said, beginning to fly off once more. Pips didn't bother to follow her; he knew that when she was like this, it was like pulling teeth to get answers from her. He took off on his own as well, heading in the opposite direction to look for the Beetle Boys and – hopefully – either keep them out of trouble or get them into more, depending on his mood.

Crysta felt a pang of sadness as she turned, watching Pips fly off silently. She knew he just wanted her to be happy and content like everyone else. But at the same time, it felt like no matter how much she tried to explain what she felt to others, they readily brushed it off as unnecessary apprehension. As she contemplated all of this, she herself nearly ran into a tree ahead of her, yelping and avoiding it just in time.

"And people are tellin' me my head is in the clouds…" Batty was suddenly zooming over her, casting a shadow over her smaller form. She mustered a small smile up towards him, but there was no fooling Batty. "What's got your mind in a knot my little friend?"

"I'm starting to think that Pips is right…that I am just a worry-wart…" she said quietly. "Maybe I am just being paranoid…"

Batty frowned a bit. "He-hey, this flying mammal doesn't think you're paranoid, but then, I _always _am!" he said with a wide grin. "But take it from me, it's never bad to be worried. Makes you prepared, and if nothing else when something really really bad does happen you can be the one standing in the midst of the chaos saying 'Ha! I knew this was going to happen! _I knew it!_'"

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Zak sighed, stepping up onto one of the stumps amidst many scattered across the empty wasteland. His bare feet burned as it touched the pained tree, and he cringed as he could sense the damage that had been done around him. He still hadn't lost that sense, even after having been gone from Ferngully for the last two years.

He hadn't expected to be believed by anyone; the few that he had attempted to tell the story of what happened to thought he had lost his mind. His parents laughed it off as anxiety from school and his brother kept telling him he shouldn't have inhaled paint fumes so much. Tony and Ralph had retired after their years of running the last Leveler, having convinced themselves they must have been drunk or something after witnessing the presence of Hexxus. Whenever Zak attempted to talk them about what happened, they either nervously laughed it off, or ignored him completely. He felt alone in what he remembered, and now what he had feared would happen was already in the making.

Zak knew he had to reach Ferngully faster than the new logging crew did; when he had heard they had come to this part of the forest, his first stop had been the jagged, massive tree that had once been Hexxus's prison. He had gotten there in the early morning, a time of the day when the forest was usually bustling with reawakening life, but when he got there, his feet crushed down onto silent, dried out leaves. There wasn't a sound to be heard in the forest around him. Ignoring the unsettling stillness for a moment, he approached the tree and pressed his face against it, his ear and the edge of his cheek. Immediately it burned with pain and he recoiled a moment, rubbing the tender area of his flesh. He tried again, clenching his teeth and pushing aside the agony to try and sense for any sign of Hexxus. The hollowed inside of the tree was quiet, unsettlingly so. There wasn't any sensation of the evil that he'd sensed when he had helped the fairies battle Hexxus last; instead, all he could feel was the searing dying breaths of the tree upon his face. He pushed back, stepped back away from the tree in disbelief and fear, when his leg nudged something soft and moist. He turned, and saw a small fox lying on the ground at his feet. At first, it looked as though it were sleeping. But when he crouched down and gently laid his hand on it, he felt…nothing. The small creature made no motion or sound as he touched it. Its flesh was cool and its fur matted and strangely singed, as though something had burned it. He looked down at it sadly and gently stroked the animal's fur a moment. As he pulled his hand back, he looked at it and saw traces of brown spent oil on his skin. "Hexxus…" he whispered to himself. The Leveler was nowhere near here yet as he looked, he could see creatures lying dead upon the ground, and a trail of trees leading off towards the machine that were either dying or gnarled into a petrified state.

He had been passing himself off as a member of the crew of the logging company, and knew if he didn't head back soon they might tell him to leave. Even a few miles into the forest, he could still faintly hear the machine and smell the stench of the smoke that it released. Something about the fumes it emitted and everything else felt more overpowering than a normal machine would, and he looked ahead, speaking quietly to himself. "I have to make it to Ferngully before this thing does…"


	3. Possession

Batty wavered back and forth slightly in the air, a little unbalanced as a sudden draft from the amongst the trees caught his wings and attempted to pull him along. "I wouldn't let what that pesky little fairy says bother you. If that Pips lays back any further and he's gonna fall backwards off the high leaf he's sitting on…" Batty's rapid stream of words was suddenly cut off as the small radio implanted into the side of his head flickered to life and his facial expression contorted, only to be followed by a goofy grin. "Are _you_ tired of seeing more and more strains on your _faaavorite_ carpet? I know _I _am! That's why you need to get the New and Improved Resolve Carpet cleaner!" What followed was Batty's attempt to hum the commercial jingle that followed his enthusiastic introduction. Crysta sighed a bit; Batty's odd 'ailment' caused by that small device had been acting up more and more lately, and he was getting more and more variety with the things he reenacted and blurted out. No one had appreciated it much when he'd suddenly began singing a song from an 'opera' or so it was called in the middle of the night. Crysta was the only one ever vaguely interested in what he had to say when these attacks came on, since it related to the human world outside of their forest; most everyone else was usually too annoyed to be fascinated.

Crysta gave a small flick to the end of the broken antenna and Batty snapped back to his normal self once more. He shook his head and scratched at the fuzzy mess of hair that stuck out between his ears. "What was I just talking about…oh yeah! There's been a lotta chaos goin' on in FernGully lately…"

Crysta didn't bother to point out that he'd changed the topic and looked at him. "Really? I've heard there's been rumors going around that humans have been seen near here, but only one or two animals said they saw anything definite, and it was dark when they thought they did…" she said quietly.

Batty shrugged in midair. "Ah well, didn't know if you'd kept your head out of the clouds long enough to hear or not my little friend. Just been gettin' hard to fly around without hearin' this and that about it…"

"Well, a lot of fairies are nervous that what happened two years ago could occur again…after all, before that happened no one believed that Hexxus could be freed from the prison that Magi placed him in…" Crysta could feel a small pain from within as she said this; even though all this time had passed she still missed Magi greatly. Magi had been her guardian and teacher since she had been young, and when she had vanished in order to disperse her powers to defeat Hexxus, Crysta felt like a part of her had left with Magi. It wasn't that she didn't sense her mentor's presence within her; it was quite the contrary, she could feel the strength that Magi had granted all of them growing within her every day. But it was that remnant that was left that made her miss Magi's weathered smile and reassuring wisdom even more.

"I say, let's forget the past and move on," Batty said, his expression lackadaisical and calm as they finally entered the warm and fragrant air of FernGully. "After all, we fought and nearly got ourselves killed to save this place…we should be enjoying it."

Crysta looked at him, stopping and allowing Batty to move on without her. He instantly dove into a dangling gathering of fruit that hung invitingly from a nearby tree and indulged himself. She crossed her arms loosely and contemplated what he'd said, though the part of her that felt worried didn't go away even with her reasoning.

Her contemplationg was interrupted once more, however, when she heard a buzzing sound that begia to grow louder from behind, and by the time she turned around she'd been seized by the arm by Stump and was being dragged along as he and the other Beetle Boys rode loudly through the once tranquil paradise.

"H-hey! Where are you taking me?" she shouted at Stump, and the other three all laughed as Stump let out a gentlemanly belch and patted his round stomach.

"We're kidnappin' ya…" he said with a toothy grin, and Crysta gave him a confused look. "Pips told us ta take you somewhere's, and that's what we're doin.'"

"Pips?" Crysta crossed her arms and sulked somewhat childishly as the Beetle Boys escorted her in their usual brutish manner; Pips just never knew when to take "Leave me alone" for an answer…

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"Hey Mack, get your arse back to work…" the overseer's lazy voice slurred over the intercoms on the outside of the leveler. A nearby college student sprang up from where he'd been reclining on some fallen logs and waved his arms as though annoyed, but then headed back to work. The younger workers were always the ones in charge of the easier and more menial tasks; they were going around marking red circles around the trunks of the large trees that surrounded the leveler, which for now was idling loudly but not progressing. This new machine used computers to locate the ring that they painted around the trees and then individually cut each of them down.

The leveler itself was structured similarly to the one that had been there previously, but it was solid black and gray colors that had been dulled so they didn't reflect the sun that well. The metal on the top was layered already with drying oils and other chemicals and that had condensed from the chimneys on top of the monstrous machine.

Hexxus remained within the smoke and pollution of the pipes, surveying this new and wonderful machine from within instead of revealing himself; with so many humans around, he didn't want them to realize his presence too soon. They were essential right now for operating the leveler since he had no form to do so, but their laziness and slow pace of working was beginning to anger him. The pipes around him shook and rattled severely as his form expanded and contracted as different gases and exhaust fueled him.

"_Humans are such slothful creatures…" _he hissed as he made his way through the bowels of the machine, watching with faint delight as the saws and mechanisms reduced once proud trees into lumber and wooden planks. _"My vengeance must be swift so they will never know I am here and coming for them…" _Hexxus emerged in a wisp of what appeared to be harmless smoke that emitted from one of the chimneys. _"Perhaps it is time for me to place some of my…'influence' upon these inferior creatures…"_ His weak form held a malicious grin as the smoke weaved down towards the earth and slowly found its way around the trees. _"After all, these humans are all but my…children of destruction with their innate boredom and hatred of the nature around them. This should not be difficult…" _A teenager stood ahead of him, slowly circling around a tree with a walkman at his side as he whistled, and his feet moved in rhythm to the music. Hexxus hovered just above the level of the teenager's head as he approached, and then he suddenly weaved himself around the boy's face like a coil of transluscent fabric.

The teenager coughed and waved his hands, but it was like the smoke had forced its way into his nose and mouth and he choked on the toxins in the substance. He slowed down and fell onto his knees, a hand on his head as he felt strange and wondered if it was poison coursing through him. His spray paint can tumbled to the side. His eyes were shut down tightly as he sat there and felt his body go limp, but it didn't fall over as though he were losing consciousness. Instead, he began to hear an inner voice speak to him.

"_Things are going too slowly…you must work faster, harder…you are a slave to the machine you serve…"_ the voice hissed, and the teenager cringed a little, but his hand reached down grasped the can of spray paint even more so. _"Work hard, mark the trees for their destruction until your weak flesh tears and your brittle bones break…"_

The teenager stood and looked on ahead with a monotonous gaze; his eyes were blank, and held a faintly acidic glow about them as he released a small breath and Hexxus's dark presence escaped from his opened mouth and nostrils. Hexxus emerged and went up into the air, smirking down at his puppet. The teenager methodically moved forward, abandoning his Walkman on the ground as he painted crimson rings around the trees. _"Humans minds are so easy to manipulate, and the toxins in the pollution they emit weaken what little will they have…"_ He said, before turning his sights back towards the leveler and the other workers around the one he'd just taken hold of.

With an evil grin he hovered between the trees towards the others…


	4. There's Always Conflict

The rainforest whizzed by from Crysta's perspective as the Beetle Boys escorted her to Pips, the hues of the plants and creatures around her melding into a culminating rush of color. She crossed her arms as she hung upside down from Stump's stumpy fist, listening to their rebellious laughter from behind her as they charged headlong through the foliage. Other residents of the forest were left scrambling and tumbling out of their way, since the Boys never felt bothered enough to slow down, stop or watch out. Crysta found herself splattered with sweet, pungent juices thanks to a berry bush they didn't take the time to go around.

After a few moments had passed of her being dragged along, the Beetle Boys came to a rough stop in front of an aging cathedral fig tree; many of them crashed into the various stalks that ascended up into the sky, but Stump managed to keep himself from following suit and thus Crysta as well. It was probably the most courteous thing he'd done their whole journey here.

Crysta had seen this tree a few times before; it was a massive tree that served as a home for countless fairies and animals. The spaces between the countless stalks and trunks that made up the whole of the tree were utilized as perfect homes for any wayward creatures in search of shelter. She could see the faint glow of fairies streaming from one home to another within the shadows of the tree, and could hear faint sounds as well from within.  
"Pips's waitin' for ya near the top…" Stump said with a toothy grin; Crysta's wings began to flutter slightly in preparation for him letting her go so she could fly up, but she received no such luck. Without warning, Stump swiftly and firmly gripped his meaty fist around her ankle, and then gave her a rough toss upwards towards the canopy.

Crysta found herself tumbling every which way upwards, the ground seeming to mesh with the sky as her vision blurred from the disorienting sensation. She finally managed to regain control over herself once she was about halfway up, staring daggers down at her escorts swiftly before making her way towards the top. "Yer welcome!" Stump said gruffly from below, waving up with a big toothy grin.

She listened closely for Pip's whimsical pan flute; he usually played it whenever he wanted to be found, so she usually followed the sound of his music. Sure enough, once she was getting close to the leafiest part of the tree she could hear the distant notes coming from a small hole in the side of the tree. She landed quietly onto the ledge of the opening and looked inside, seeing only a slightly lit living area. It was, of course, messy beyond belief, and she sighed, stepping in and avoiding the empty nut shells and fruit seeds.

"Pips, you really need to learn to pick up after yourself every once in a while…" she said as she walked into the abode, the space a little too small for her to feel comfortable flying around.

"Hey, I'll have you know I cleaned this place just last night…" Pips said with a smirk as he appeared at a far doorway, tossing his pan flute over his shoulder. "Unfortunately, I ended up having another 'gathering' shortly after I had cleaned it up…"

"You mean a wild party…" Crysta said knowingly; Pips smiled sheepishly for a moment as he hovered above the floor and plopped down to her side, resting a friendly arm across her shoulders.

"Heh, you always could read me like a book. I see my Boys managed to get you here in one piece…"

"Barely…" Crysta muttered; she was still splattered with berry juices. "You need to find a better way to escort your guests around, or you won't be having too many more…"

Pips chuckled, not hearing the sting of sarcasm in her voice. He led her towards a makeshift couch resting against the wooded wall of his abode. It had been crafted out of fallen leaves and stuffed with shed animal fur; she could see various fibers jutting out from the seams of it. Pips plopped down onto it in a lackadaisical manner, his arms crossed behind his head in a relaxed position, resting his feet on an equally roughly crafted table. Crysta sat down beside him and attempted to make herself comfortable, though it was a challenge.

"So, the word traveling around is that you've been feeling a little off lately, well, more than usual, and more than you were letting on earlier when we talked…" Pips started their conversation rather casually. "At least, that's what my Boys overheard from your conversation with that nut Batty, and neither are incredibly reliable sources…"

"Well…I have been feeling a little strange," Crysta said with a shrug. "Lately it's been hard for me to get any sleep, I keep feeling like there's something I should be doing. Or that there's something wrong, but I don't know what it is that's bothering me…"she said softly. Pips just shrugged and fiddled with a strand of fur.

"Sounds to me like you're just stressing yourself out over nothing," he said with a grin. "I know you feel like the responsibility of this whole forest is on you now, but that's not true. You know you can depend upon all of us to help you out, if anything ever came up."

"I know that, but…it just feels like something is happening, but it's too far away for me to know what it is…"

"Are you back to worrying about Hexxus again?" Even Pips still, at times, struggled to say his name. If anything, the fear and apprehension of the evil spirit had only intensified since his last attack on Ferngully, even though he had been sealed away again. "You know, if you're so worried about making sure he's still trapped, why don't we head to the tree you sealed him in? Seeing that should put your mind at ease right?"

Crysta hadn't thought of that. "Maybe that would make me feel a little better at least," she said in agreement, and Pips slapped his hands down onto his knees enthusiastically. "All righty then, let's head out…" he said, taking her hand and soaring out of his home without any warning. Crysta sighed as he all but dragged her through the forest just as the Boys had. She could tell this wasn't something he wanted to do, and she was thankful he was willing to venture all the way out to where the gnarled tree rested.

But there was still something weighing heavily in her. It felt like something slowly wrapping itself around her, only becoming more thick and restricting as time went on. Part of her believed that maybe it was a sign that Magi was sending to her, from wherever she had gone, warning her that something was near. But part of her just wanted to pass it off as mere stress that she was putting onto herself. She just wasn't sure which it was, but it was only becoming stronger, and she was beginning to think that maybe it was a warning of some form.

But the question still remained, what was it warning her about?

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"Bacchus, I think we should leave this place."

Zak looked down critically at the dark haired boy hunched over in the ravine, marking the last few trees in this portion of the forest. Grumbling ensued from the shadows down below. The boy turned and looked up at Zak angrily, his young dark eyes nearly hidden beneath a hard hat that was two sizes too big for his head. The vibrant yellow color of it was the only thing Zak could see well at the moment.

"Zak, you've been on my case ever since we were given the permit to clear out more parts of this rainforest. It's not like I have the power to go and change that," his younger cousin lashed back with an annoyed tone of voice as he climbed out of the natural hole, his white tank top and ripped jeans stained with mud and tree sap. "Besides, if we hadn't gotten the permit it would mean no summer job, and no college tuition for me right out of school. I thought if anything you'd be happy for me that I managed to get this job at all."

Zak rolled his eyes a little. Bacchus was his youngest cousin from up north who'd come down with the logging company a few days ago, one of the handful of high school kids hired onto the team to go around with spray paint and mark the levelers' target trees. For countless daytime hours he was given a meager salary that would steadily grow inside the bank, and it was one of the few jobs he'd probably find while only just about to begin his junior year of high school. Bacchus looked almost like he could be his younger brother, except for his darker hair and eyes. They both had a dark surfer's tan from having outdoor jobs and unkempt mullets that hung around their shoulders, though Bacchus kept his tied back into a small ponytail to keep it out of his face while he worked. Bacchus didn't have as large a frame as Zak, at least not yet, and had trouble pleading his case when he stood several inches shorter than his cousin.

"I don't feel like being griped at and hearing more fantasy stories about what happened out here to you. You're the laughing stock of the whole family now you know with all that talk about fairies and demonic smoke clouds," Bacchus continued, shaking his can of paint as though mocking him. He stormed past Zak and started to draw a ring around an aging tree.

"Those weren't just stories Bacchus. I know it sounds like something out of kids' stories, but it's all true. I saw it all with my own two eyes! The other workers all saw it too and you know it," he retaliated, in a harsher tone of voice, but Bacchus seemed just as unconvinced as before as he circled the last tree, leaving a ring of crimson around it that sealed its death. At least in Zak's mind that was what it was; he knew that was now the fate of all these marked trees.

"It could have been anything, heat exhaustion, poisoning from the fumes of that old Leveler, maybe just the climate had a screwy effect on your mind," Bacchus brushed it off as he had numerous times before. "Come on Zak, do you really want me to believe that you met a colony of fairies out in the midst of these trees? There have been plenty of people who've traveled into Ferngully before, whether it was a research group, or other logging companies, and so on. Why haven't any of them come running back claiming to have seen anything that you did?"

"Because those groups haven't been far enough into Ferngully to see where they are, and Hexxus wasn't released until…until we came here," his voice held just a twinge of remorse and guilt for having been partially responsible for that event. Bacchus was now the one to roll his eyes.

"You know when you mentioned that…'Hexxus' being before, I went online and looked it up. Turns out there was some now extinct tribes that lived around this area once that feared an evil spirit by that name," Bacchus said casually. Zak looked up with a curious expression. "There were some old stone writings that were translated by scientists that claimed the tribes stayed away from Mt. Warning because they believed he was sealed nearby or within it, but rest assured…they think it was just that Mt. Warning might have been volcanic around that time and caused fires and some desolation in the area. It's more than likely their supposed spirit of destruction was nothing more than a slightly active volcano," Bacchus said with a triumphant grin, but Zak just gave him a look and seized his arm as the boy was about to move off to another section of the forest he was scheduled to move through.

"Listen Bacchus, I know that it all seems really strange and unbelievable, but we're family, and I'm just asking you to trust me is all. Please, just leave here and go back home, find a job in your town and leave this place alone," he said once more, his tone calm and steady, but Bacchus reacted by clenching his teeth slightly and tearing his arm away.

"You aren't the boss of me Zak, and I'm not leaving until this whole forest has been torn down and trucked away for housing developments," he said harshly back before he stomped away into the forest.


	5. The Darkness Surrounds

_(Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed / favorited / watched this little fanfic of mine! I was shocked to see there was no Ferngully fanfiction on this site, so I'm very happy that so many people have been content in seeing mine on here. Thanks for all of your support and kind words! A word of caution, this chapter is very dark in the later parts of it! Nothing at all too graphic or gory but it will definitely (hopefully) send some chills down your back. Just a little word of warning for all of you!)_

Crysta's only light home was her own faint flow as they flew through the growing silence of the forest. It was nearly nighttime and the sky overhead was dimming into a gentle darkness. The air felt heavy with the presence of coming rain, and she wanted to make it back to her home before she would be stuck dodging large raindrops that dripped from the canopy overhead.

Her and Pip's journey to Hexxus's prison had been cut off when the Beetle Boys intercepted Pips and told him around a party going on in another part of the forest. He had still wanted to go with her to there, but she could tell in his face that he wanted to go, and so she had let him and opted to go the rest of the way by herself. She flew through the forest quietly as the evening settled in.

Somehow, it seemed nothing that anyone said to her would ease away these fears, and she knew that this nagging feeling she had had to be significant. Magi Lune had always taught her that one's best intuition came from within, not without. _The creatures of the forest would be blind and ignorant without their instincts. Trust yours to their full capacity, Crysta._ Magi's words repeated themselves softly in her mind, faint as Magi's voice had always sounded when Crysta was quietly flying away, hoping to duck out of lessons for the day. Those attempts rarely worked, and she was glad for it now. Magi had taught her so many wise things that she would probably be lost without today.

She was starting to get closer to the outskirts of the forest, and the activites of animals and plants around her were becoming more sparse. Night was sending everyone into their homes for rest, and she herself was beginning to feel tired as well, but she didn't want to turn back until she had seen the tree and was positive that Hexxus was still where he belonged.

Her sensitive ears suddenly detected the crashing of plants nearby, and could hear their distant cries as they were forced to bend under the force of something large that was moving herway. Slightly fearfully, but curiously, she moved towards the lumbering sounds that were making their way through the trees. In the darkness it was hard to tell if it was simply a large animal moving back towards its home, or something else.

"Hello…? Is…is someone out there?" she called out, but there was no answer. The only sounds she could hear now were the cries – growing stronger, closer – and the wind whistling overhead heralding the coming storm she had heard for some time. The combination of these elements made her shiver, but she kept her fear at bay and continued to look around for the source of the approaching sound.

But while listening hard for its direction and source, she overheard something else, something…further away. It sounded far larger, far more brutal than whatever was approaching her, and the cries that were coming from far away were countless times more numerous to her horror. It sounded like a dying chorus rising up over the trees that began to overpower all the other sounds she heard. Her eyes widened as she heard twisting, snapping, plants and animals whose cries suddenly silenced…

A massive hand suddenly nearly swiped her, having slid off of a tree that it was attempting to press against for balance, and shards of bark rained down. She yelped, pulled out of her trance-like state as she looked up to see…Zak?!  
She looked up in shock; it had felt like an eternity since she had seen him. He looked slightly different now; obviously he was the normal height of a human and vastly overpowered her small size, but she noticed that his hair had been cut a little shorter, and his face no longer bore the same cocky expression it had when she had first seen him years ago. He was looking around, his footsteps light to prevent any of the plants from dying beneath his feet, and he was whispering her name. Crysta smiled and joyously fluttered up to his face. "Zak!" she shouted, unable to think of anything else at the time to shout, she was so happy to see him again.

"Crysta, there you are…" he said, a faint smile on his face as he gently cupped his hands around her small form and lowered her a little so she wasn't directly in his face. Her light was slightly blinding in the darkness of the coming night. The only real light he had had to find his way through the labyrinthine rainforest were the distant flashes of lightning that found their way beneath the canopy. He was too worried about startling the wildlife around him and had decided not to bring one of the heavy flashlights from the logging company.

"Oh Zak, I didn't…think I'd get to see you again…" she said, her smile turning into one of sadness. She hadn't realized until now how strongly she had missed him. Though too small for a traditional embrace, she settled for wrapping her arms around the bridge of his nose, even though he winced at the brightness of the light she emitted. "I didn't think you would be coming back to the rainforest at all, after what happened last time…"

"I didn't think so, either…I mean, I've been trying hard to keep humans away from here, I'd be a bit of a hypocrite coming back so soon…besides, I knew all of you need some time to recover and rest," Zak said, rubbing the back of his head with a somewhat goofy grin.

Crysta looked content for a moment, but then her expression turned to one of worry. If that were the case, and he had vowed to himself not to come back much if at all, there had to be a reason he had come back to Ferngully. An important reason.

"Then…why did you come back…?" she asked softly. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but…" She knew something had to be wrong; the lack of ease and contentment on his part was making her all too aware of this.

"Yeah, about that…" Zak said, his tone suddenly quiet, worried. Crysta clenched her hands together pressed against her chest and bit her lower lip, her telltale expression of anxiety. "I tried really hard to have a bill passed, back in the city, that would keep Ferngully and the areas around it from being harvested for their trees, but…I didn't have much luck," he said. He sounded horribly defeated and it showed in his eyes. "Unfortunately a lot of the politicians back where I live – the…elders of my people, I guess you could say – have a lot invested in the countless housing developments that the harvested trees are going to help build. The economy's having some really hard times lately, they said, and…they wouldn't listen to me."

Crysta's glow faded slightly with worry and apprehension. Even though she didn't fully understand the way human societies worked, she could absorb enough of it to realize that Zak hadn't been able to stop the humans and their destructive ways. Not that she blamed him; at least he had tried to, but considering that his unease still had not lifted, she sensed there was additional bad news to be faced.

"There's a logging company here, again, just like the one I was in before, but much larger…" Zak said, his voice becoming dire and soft. "My cousin Bacchus was roped into working as a marker, someone who goes around marking the trees that are going to be cut down, so I came with him to try and talk him out of it, but he's too thick-headed to listen. The logging company I was in was never going to come here, just nearby, not that that's much better…but this one _is_ heading this way. They have a permit to cut down enough wood to meet the quota of the contracting companies, and they won't stop until they have all they want…"

"Oh no…" Crysta said, her glow dimming significantly this time. She still didn't understand all of his terminology, but she did understand the most awful part of what he was attempting to tell her…the humans were on their way to Ferngully again, and bringing another horrible machine to devour their homes! She felt a powerful quiver travel through her body as she realized that it was all happening again…

"Gaaaah!" Batty suddenly came flying into her viewpoint and slammed right into Zak's face. She half-expected the loony bat to be attacking him, but then she saw Batty looking into Zak's face, his claws hooked onto Zak's ears to keep himself hanging there.

"Hey buddy it's been a while since I saw you here what's shakin'?"

"Hey there Batty," Zak said, mustering a small smile as he gently pried the bat off his face and cupped him in his hands. "You're as nutty as ever I see."

"I find that horribly offensive," Batty huffed. "I am not nutty, it is simply that no one understands my…uniquely eccentric genius."

"Yeah, sure, right…" Zak said sarcastically, beginning to scratch behind Batty's long ears. He had two dogs back home so he was used to doing this. Batty looked confused for a moment and then content. "That feels _soooo_ nice…"

"I'm…I'm going to go start waking up the Council of Elders, and…everyone else…" Crysta said, her voice slightly weakened by the massive amounts of news from her human friend. Zak looked like he wanted to say something, anything he could to try and comfort her, but nothing came out before she had taken off into the darkness to do as she had said. Her expression was placid with a mixture of fear and forced calmness as she flew as fast as she could around the trees towards where her father and the other appointed Elders were settling into their beds for the night.

"What's with her? And why's she going to wake everybody up? Everybody just got to sleep!" Batty inquired from down in Zak's hands. Zak sighed and shook his head. He winced as his bare feet ached as rocks and sharp plants gnashed at his flesh; he'd been in such a hurry to get here he hadn't bothered to snag his sneakers from his cousin before he'd departed.

"Wait until the meeting she's calling and…you'll know why…"

He still hadn't told her about Hexxus.

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Bacchus released an exasperated breath of air as he used his bare arm to wipe off his forehead; not that it did any good, all of him was sweaty after such a long day's work. But the sun was setting and it was getting harder and harder to find his way through the trees without falling over, so he decided to start making his way back towards the monstrous Leveler to sign out for the night. Nearby, he could hear the low hiss of spray cans still being used to mark the trees and cocked his eyebrow. He had thought the others would be heading in by now to call it a day. He hadn't realized how far beyond the others he had been until now, only passing them after having walked for several minutes. After all, it had been a hot and humid day; he felt weary just from using a spray can all day, he could only imagine how tired the tree cutters and dressers must be feeling after working in the baking sunlight.

It was easy enough to find the Leveler in the darkness; it had horribly brilliant strobe lights that zoomed into the forest to locate workers and watch out for obstacles, not that it needed to with its great size. The Leveler could easily take down whatever it ran into. He could also hear the low rumbling of it, like a beast's belly gurgling as it slept. In his mind what Zak had said to him earlier hadn't left him, as much as he wished it would. He still didn't understand why his cousin was so content in believing in such ridiculous things, but the way Zak talked about it…it seemed so genuine for whatever reason. He rubbed his forehead and shook his head in the same instant; he knew he had to be getting tired if he was starting to agree with something his cousin had said.

As he approached the Leveler he was met with a strange and confusing sight; not a single worker had headed out yet; they were all still hard at work dissembling the larger trees and making sure the Leveler was in perfect running condition. There was also an uneasy, strange air about the entire compound. No one was talking to one another, none of the friendly banter that had been going on earlier was still going on. Everyone had a strange, glazed look in their eyes that made them seem tired, and almost…soulless. The sensation made Bacchus's skin crawl, and he approached one of the tree dressers that was nearby finishing the shaved trees into wooden planks.

"Hey Steve, why isn't anyone heading home yet? The bosses decide against that whole 'no-overtime-pay' policy they slapped on us earlier?" he said jokingly, but Steve completely ignored him and just continued working as though Bacchus weren't there at all. "Steve…? What's with you man? It's getting dark, we can't keep working out here in the dark. Someone could get hurt or something…" he said, gripping the older man's shoulder to try and get him to listen now, but Steve simply, harshly pulled away and continued to work without hindrance, and without a word.

Bacchus was getting a terrible feeling now; everyone was moving about like they were as much machines as the Leveler itself was. As he walked by other employees carrying tools and pieces of cut wood no one said Hi to him or even acknowledged his presence at all. Some of the workers, he observed as well, had open, weeping wounds that were bleeding and infected from not being treated and yet none of them seemed to feel pain, or made any effort to take a break from work to bandage themselves. Several had bruises and lacerations from small run-ins with saws and wood shards, but no one seemed to care. The whole working ground smelled with a stale mixture of the smell of dissected trees, faint strings of human blood, the overpowering mixed fumes of it all made Bacchus shiver a little when he felt the hot breath of the towering machine upon him as he approached it cautiously. The lights were off in the control chamber up at the very top of the lumbering giant, and he didn't see any motion or signs of life within it. This was even more startling; the Leveler was on and operating, but…it didn't seem like anyone was operating it.

"What the heck is going on here…" he said, trembling, looking around at the workers and feeling his feet shake as he stood beside the monstrous machine. His question was answered by a seemingly disembodied voice that came from overhead; it was dark, loud but smooth like the gentle release of poison from an air duct. He slowly looked up, seeing that the voice was coming from some dark, vast mass that had culminated over the Leveler, that he could only see because it was much darker than the night sky above.

"_Your friends have…'decided' to help me in my long and laborious work of tearing down this disgusting forest…"_ it hissed down at him. Bacchus gasped in horror and shock as two fiery eyes and a hellish smirk suddenly cut across the terrible darkness overhead. _"But it looks as though I missed one of the humans, perhaps it would be best to correct that_, now_."_

Bacchus suddenly felt two of the large, burly woodcutters grab onto his arms and hold him steadfast there as though they had been given some silent command to do so. He yelped and attempted to fight his way out of their grasps, but it was to no avail. Being only sixteen, he had nowhere near the strength those two behemoths had. He couldn't even budge them. He looked up in terror as the dark, disembodied mass began to climb down from over the Leveler towards him, pausing in front of him before a small wisp of it suddenly shot out from it and forced its way into his mouth.

He coughed and choked; it was the worst sensation he could ever imagine. The toxic material burned against the flesh inside of his mouth and throat and traveled throughout all of him like a seething acid that was eating him from the inside out. Tears streaked down his face from pain as he felt his vision beginning to give way to the intensity of the agony, when suddenly it stopped. The wisp of poisonous smoke suddenly forced its way back up his throat and down out of his skull, and out his mouth, assimilating back into the larger mass of dark smoke that was hovering before him. He coughed and spat weakly, his legs hanging limply with only his two captors to hold him up, and he tasted the metallic tinge of blood sliding down his throat. The cloud of smoke before him suddenly began to organize itself, and when he finally mustered the strength to look up at it again, it had assumed a crude, powerful human form that smiled darkly down at him.

"_Mmm, what wonderful luck I seem to be experiencing lately…a blood relative of the single human to ever step foot into Ferngully…"_ it hissed menacingly, lowering his head so it was looking at him at mere inches away. Bacchus coughed more as the being breathed its foul breath upon him. _"I saw your putrid cousin here earlier, but unfortunately…his warning to the fairies of Ferngully has come far too late for them to stop me this time. This time…I will kill every single living creature in the rainforest, down to the last insect and living seed, and then…when I am done, I will take pleasure in returning to this…'city' of humans that I have seen in your memories…it sounds like a beautiful place where I can gain insurmountable power, and more human slaves to do my bidding…"_

Bacchus was breathing heavily as he listened, too horrified to speak for a moment. His eyes widened as he took in what it said, what it looked like…and came to a horrifying realization all too soon. "You're…you're Hexxus…! The destructive spirit Zak kept talking about…"

"_Ah, you aren't as foolish as you look…"_ Hexxus said with an evil grin as he circled the boy and his captors like a ravenous predator. _"But you will have far more use to me than a simple slave marking trees. No, you have worth to me as a captive, being the relative to that human who defied me…"_ he spat. _"For you see…fairies have many weakness, but one of their worst ones is…compassion. Let's see how willing they will be to destroy my loving machine knowing there's an innocent human within it…"_ he said, suddenly whipping out one of his massive arms. Bacchus gasped as the smoke wrapped itself around his arms, pinning them to his sides. He looked startled to say the least; this creature, whatever it was, was not limited to human elements it seemed. Even in its seemingy light and gaseous state, the grip of its arm was still terribly strong around him. Hexxus suddenly rose up into the air again, taking Bacchus with him and away from the two workers who had been holding him, who silently went back to work. Bacchus struggled slightly, out of instinct, but he was far too weak to have even a prayer of a chance. The door of the Leveler swung open and clattered loudly against its side, and Hexxus smirked at him. _"Welcome to your new home…"_ He suddenly tossed Bacchus into the Leveler. As Bacchus slammed onto the metal tiles of the floor, he could hear all the windows and doors throughout the entire machine suddenly slamming shut and locking inhumanly tight to keep him in, one at a time down the corridors behind and below him, but swiftly enough he had no time to try and escape. He pushed himself up and looked at Hexxus angrily.

"Zak will stop you again, along with the fairies!" Bacchus shouted at him, but Hexxus was unafraid and simply chuckled at his defiance.

"_I would try to be more respectful, child…for you see, the longest you'll get to live is until I have crushed each and every one of the fairies, and when you have no more use to me…"_ Hexxus suddenly ran his demonic finger across his throat, causing a temporary gap in the toxicity that slowly filled itself, and slithers of oil ran down for a few seconds to emphasize what he meant. Bacchus looked frightened at this gesture and crawled backwards on his hands and feet until he had placed himself behind one of the control panels. Hexxus laughed once more at him and drifted back up and away, out of sight.

Bacchus was shaking terribly, his once tanned skin paled with awful fear. His pressed his knees against his chest and rested his head down onto his crossed arms as he tried to calm himself. If only he had listened to Zak when his cousin had attempted to try and talk him out of taking this job! But now it was far too late for that, and, as Hexxus had said, he knew it was too late for the forest. This Leveler was designed to destroy entire sections of forest with ease, and to him it seemed like an unstoppable force. What if Zak and the fairies couldn't stop the Leveler and Hexxus this time…? His contemplations were interrupted by terrible thoughts of his own coming death as Hexxus had promised, being thrown into the bowels of the Leveler to join the remains of felled trees. He shivered and raised his head only slightly to see masses of trees and foliage falling down in front of the Leveler, the wood beams and splinters snapping like gunshots before the crash of it slamming against the dry, dead ground. He knew that this place that Hexxus had imprisoned him was the death chamber of the entire rainforest, of all the fairies, and his cousin…and that it was both his prison, and that it would be the place of his own death…


	6. Tension

The entire population of the rainforest's fairies had been called to assembly as the evening was beginning to fade into night. A faint sprinkling of essential rainfall came from overhead, and Zak sought dry refuge underneath a large curved plant that served as an umbrella for him. As the fairies arrived, countless amounts of them perched on his criss-crossed legs, while Pips and his Beetle Boys had assumed their seats on his shoulders and were chatting loudly amongst themselves. Zak sighed a little. 'This must be what auditorium seats feel like…"

In the darkness however Zak could see fully the glimmer that came from the fairies when they were in flight; he wondered if he would ever obtain that level of oneness with nature. Maybe it was only for them, and not for humans, but he remembered when he had last been here Magi Lune had had allotted him a small portion of her powers when she had passed on. Maybe he could ask Crysta about it later, once all of this was resolved. If it could be resolved…

"Order, order…" Crysta's father shouted said as he hovered around, attempting to calm down the masses of fairies that were humming with fearful rumors and chatter. "Calm yourselves, all of you…as far as what Zak has told us, this is an act of the humans…"

"There's been talk going all around the forest that it is something more…" a fairy perched on Zak's leg chimed in. "There have been animals fleeing to Ferngully lately that speak of smoke, and darkness…"

This talk made the crowd of fairies enter into a quiet panic again that the elder fairy attempted to settle.

"There is another leveler in the forest, another machine the humans use in order to cut down trees and remove the forests, but it is being powered by the ignorant humans, not by…Hexxus…" he struggled to say that name; he had hoped the subject would never surface once again. But this only appeared to spark more worry in those who hadn't wanted to consider that.

"But what if it is him?!"

"I thought he was locked away forever this time…!"

"Maybe the humans just don't know he's there again…!"  
Crysta's father sighed; he was afraid that this sort of panic would set in. But he couldn't blame his people; Hexxus's last return had been unexpected and horrific for them to cope with. He had nearly destroyed their home and killed everyone in the forest using the last machine that the humans had brought. And Zak had informed him that this one was bigger and even more destructive than the last. He would never understand why humans created such terrible things…

Zak looked around as the fairies whizzed by him frantically; where was Crysta? Batty wasn't here yet, either…he wondered where the two of them could be to be missing this call to meeting. It was then, he realized, where he was sitting. He was in the shadow of the ceremonial circle of trees where Magi Lune had passed on her essence to the fairies and himself. And when he turned, he realized the trees were closed together, tightly, as they had been before.

And that was where she was.

Crysta was sitting in the middle of the dried earth between the trees, her knees tucked tightly against her chest and her expression sorrowful, and worried. Magi Lune had been her teacher, and had trusted her to look after the forest in her absence, but she was at a loss as to what to do. Like the other fairies, she had a feeling that something was terribly wrong with this situation. When the humans had first accidentally freed Hexxus, they hadn't fully realized this until he had brought the Leveler to the brink of their home. But this time, there was a sense of death in the air that she couldn't shake. It was that same feeling that had been growing in her for days now. She wondered if this was some new intuition that Magi had instilled in her when she had passed. After all, Magi had been the first to tell them that Hexxus had been released from his prison.

But there were other foreboding signs, ones that she and her father and the elders had been keeping from the other fairies to avoid having a full on panic come through their community. Nearby streams that were in isolated parts of the forest were running dark with oil and the blood and bodies of animals. There were patches of deathly gases that sometimes drifted into parts of the forest and smothered the trees dry of their oxygen and vitality. The sky above the canopy was turning into mixtures of crimson and blackness that shriveled and swelled within itself like a living evil presence. It was said in ancient times these meant Mt. Warning was beginning to tremble and set ablaze when it was larger and fiery, but it had not been active for millennia now. The last eruption had been caused by Hexxus when he had released the fires beneath the mountain, but it had been silent for so long that it couldn't be that now, without Hexxus to drive such a destructive force.

Crysta was afraid, completely terrified by the reality. Even if it was only the humans causing this, how were they going to stop the massive machine without revealing themselves to the humans? It was one thing to do it in front of Zak and those other men who had controlled the previous one, but in front of an entire work crew…that could bring even more humans here to search for them.

Sometimes she wished it were the ancient times, from long before she was born, when humans and fairies had lived peacefully amidst the endless wilderness and forest. But humans had changed drastically in the years since they had fled from Hexxus. Magi had told her, once, that the humans that had survived had been corrupted by Hexxus into destructive and ignorant creatures by his violence, and their own suffering. Humans did not have the same reasoning that fairies did, and believed that the only way to create was through destroying something else. Because of this, Crysta knew if the fairies were discovered, they would be hunted, caged and placed on display in lifeless human cities. This had been a fear that Zak had voiced to her, his reason why humans and fairies could never coexist the way they had before.

But then…what was she to do?

If they used their powers to disable the Leveler once again, the humans might search for what caused it and find them. Or at the very least they would find the paradise of Ferngully and might seek to make it their own and drive the fairies out without realizing it, another terrible outcome. Ferngully was their home; if the humans took it from them, they wouldn't have anywhere else to go.

But their powers were the only means they had to stop it. Trees, animals and their small bodies weren't going to be anywhere near enough to stand up to the massive machine. What was she supposed to do?! She pulled on her hair a bit to alleviate her anxieties, but the situation felt just as hopeless as she stood and looked around. The trees had closed into themselves to give her some time to meditate and think about what she would say to the others, but she felt very much alone in the circle of trees.

"_Magi…what am I supposed to do…?"_ she asked, sadly, fearfully. The area around her was silent for a moment, when suddenly Crysta felt a strange presence around her. What was so strange, however, was that it felt like it was coming from within her. The trees and earth and thick canopy overhead all began to shimmer and glow with overwhelming life and energy. The buried and repressed songs of the trees and the earth began to rise up in the form of dancing winds and rustling leaves and the swaying of branches and stems and wooden torsos. Crysta was concerned for a moment; had her anxiety and apprehension caused this…? She received her answer, however, when on the far side of the ceremonial space the form of Magi Lune began to culminate amidst the chaotic channels of glowing energy.

"Magi…?" she asked the form in disbelief.

"_I told you I would never leave you Crysta…"_

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Bacchus finally managed to crawl out from hiding; he was hungry and dehydrated, and terrified still beyond belief, but he knew sitting there in a ball wasn't going to get him anywhere but to death's door. 'I need to find some way to help Zak…if nothing else because I should have listened to him from the start…' he thought to himself as he pushed himself up from underneath the break table.

The control panel was on the opposite of the room; he slipped over spilt coffee to it, but when he saw its complexities he knew there was no hope of disabling it. This new Leveler was completely machine operated and only needed humans to monitor its activities, mark where it needed to go and empty out its tree-filled gullet. There was no manual shut-off for it; in order to turn it off, he remembered, you had to shut off the core of the machine. The Leveler was highly technological; it was energized by a new reactor core that used small doses of uranium that could power it for weeks without slowing down if need be. Only special workers with the right training could do that, and he had no idea where it was amidst the massive and seemingly endless machinery.

He looked at the control panel helplessly, pressing several buttons that did nothing to halt the machine; instead, the windshield wipers flapped wildly in front of him across the spanning glass windows, sifting around the oil and ash that had gathered there from the fumes. A few of the buttons caused the Leveler to lurch slightly; he figured they must be connected, somehow, to the braking system…

That was it, the brakes! Maybe he couldn't shut it down entirely, but he could at least find a way to temporarily stop it so all it could do was idle in place. He searched around frantically for the emergency brake; there had to be one somewhere amidst all these levers, buttons and computers! The quaking and shuddering sounds and motions of the Leveler were making him dazed and disoriented, but he continued his search regardless.

He finally found it within a locked gray box in the corner of the control room away from everything else. He hadn't thought it was what he was looking for because of how large it was. Seizing a fire hatchet from an emergency kit, he slammed it against the metal of the box until it gave way, and he pried it open with his hands. The emergency break was a gigantic lever that stuck out several feet from the wall, and at first when Bacchus pulled down on it, it wouldn't give, even when he put all his weight down onto it. It moved only slightly, and he cursed under his breath. How was he supposed to get it down without a pressurized machine?

But that gave him an idea; he dragged the fire emergency kit over with him and began to hook up the half a dozen fire extinguishers to the lever with their nozzles facing towards the ceiling; with any luck, the combined weight of his body with the force of all six extinguishers spraying into the ceiling would be enough to activate it. Once he had all of them hooked up, he pressed down all their releases and then leapt up onto the leveler and pushed down with all his might even as the bicarbonate rained down on him from above. The lever began to give way under the combined pressure, and finally, harshly cranked downwards, knocking the extinguishers off of it along with Bacchus, who slammed onto the floor with a thud.

The Leveler suddenly shrieked and lurched violently forward and back as the emergency breaks interrupted the energy flow into the steel sprockets that moved the spiked metal links of the rotary wheels. It spasmed a bit from the sudden stop, but eventually did crank to a halt. Bacchus let out a sigh of relief as the monstrous Leveler idled where it stood on the bare rainforest floor. But his relief was swiftly interrupted when he heard a terrible roar come from overhead.

"_Who has done this?!" _Hexxus's demonic voice bellowed overhead. _"Who has made my lovely machine halt its wrath…?!"_

Bacchus had just pushed himself up when the horrific being appeared all around the control panel. _"You…"_

A serpentine black hand suddenly surged through the panel door that led into the chamber and wrapped itself around him in a death grip, prying him out through the window as he yelped and struggled to break free. _"You did this! How did you do it…"_ the demon seethed, breathing his poisonous breath onto the youth's face. _"Tell me now, or I'll put an end to your menial existence…"_

"No! I never will so you can use this to hurt my cousin and Ferngully…!" Bacchus shouted back, still struggling to get free from his grip. Hexxus's already terrifying form swelled with rage as his eyes burned down at the boy.

"_Fine, rot with the rest of this doomed forest!" _he hissed, before he suddenly cast Bacchus hard downwards. He shouted out as he plummeted, suddenly landing hard below. The blow made his head spin for a few seconds, and he couldn't see, but he could feel he was on a sticky surface that clung to his clothes, hair and skin. It was then that he could feel an onrush of searing heat, and his vision cleared enough for his horror to set in where Hexxus had cast him. He struggled, pulling one arm loose, but he still partially stuck to the metal surface by the immense amounts of tree sap.

_He let out a terrified cry as he was pulled into the mouth of the Leveler._

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_Thanks so much to all of my readers who have kept up with my fanfic! I hope this chapter has left some of you in suspense. Just a little? Maybe? Anyhoo, I haven't forgotten about this fic! Just school and work have me so busy, but I'll be updating it much more now._


	7. Belly of the Beast

Batty winced at the rancid smell of toxins in the air and followed them towards their source. He twitched a bit and muttered to himself as he followed the streams of faint blackish smoke that loomed in the air. He'd noticed the faint plumes of smoke while scavenging the forest for Crysta. "In retrospect it probably woulda been best to go back and get the others first, but _noooo_ Batty, you just _had_ to go and investigate all by your little ol' lonesome self…" he said angrily to himself. The smoke was becoming thicker and hard for him to see through, but he pressed onwards, knowing inwardly what he was about to see through the trees and foliage ahead.

Batty stopped in midair and just grimaced at the sight of the massive machine that lurched and growled like a restless beast before him. It was even more hideous and frightening than the last one he'd seen years ago. Behind it was a serpentine trail of oil that the machine had expelled from itself, its waste showing a clear path of where it had come from. Down below most of the humans looked like insects scurrying about monotonously, marking trees and adjusting the machine's rigging and doing other various chores without a word or glimpse at one another. Even Batty, with his avoidance of humans in general, could tell this wasn't normal behavior. But before he could take another moment to observe this, he heard a horrified cry resonate out from below where he was hovering. When he looked down to see where it had come from, through the suffocating miasma around him he made out a figure lying helplessly on top of the conveyer belt that was being pulled mercilessly into the gullet of the machine.

Batty's eyes widened and he gasped, then grit his teeth and dove down towards the figure, instinctively, memories flashing back of him snagging Zak and Crysta from the cobweb just before they would have been engulfed by the previous Leveler. "What're they so in need of firewood that they're throwing their kids to this thing?!" he spat to himself, catapulting himself down towards the figure. Unfortunately, his perception had led him to believe that this human was around his own size, and when he got close enough he suddenly realized that this human was full-sized and just a _little_ too large for him to pry loose. He let out a sharp yelp and suddenly fell headlong towards the boy.

Bacchus heard the sound from overhead and looked up, hoping to see someone coming to his aid, but instead saw a wide-eyed bat crashing down towards him. Bacchus let out another cry as the mammal slammed down onto the top of his head, and he managed to pry his arms loose from the sap and reached up, pulling the creature down from his head. "Wha…what the heck…?!" Bacchus sputtered, momentarily forgetting his original plight.

Batty looked up, dizzied, at the teenager that was gawking down at him. For a second, it almost looked like Zak to him, but as his vision cleared he could see a slightly darker complexion and black hair that was sticky with tree sap. "Uh…I'm here to rescue you…?" was all Batty could get out. Bacchus just looked down at him, thinking that he must have gone crazy. From what he remembered in Biology, bats couldn't talk like human beings. But before he could make further sense of it, both he and his small companion suddenly looked up and saw a row of ravenous, gleaming blades ahead of them, spinning and gyrating. Both Bacchus and Batty let out terrified screams as the Leveler suddenly swallowed them into itself.

The interior was red and sweltering, moist with water and smelling of mangled trees. As they entered, Bacchus instinctively drew the small creature closer to himself, hoping to offer some protection though, in actuality, his flesh was no more durable than his companion's. Batty climbed up onto Bacchus's shoulder and gripped his hair with the boy's hand still clinging to him, and they both yelped as blades suddenly came at them from both sides. Bacchus scrambled to force himself erect, having staggered up to his knees, and could feel the windy whisk of the blade against his flesh. They came close enough that the blades tore away at his tank-top. Bacchus closed his eyes a second, wincing, too afraid to see if they'd cut his flesh. The thing that jolted him back was Batty yelling into his ear.

"Left!" Batty suddenly yelped, and Bacchus looked up to see the blades come at them from the side, intending to cut them into slabs, and he screeched and tumbled back against one side of the tunnel-like descent, his back burning against the wall as he tumbled rather uncontrollably towards the belly of the beast. He suddenly heard the hiss of the machines behind him and pushed himself from the wall just in time to avoid being sliced apart by the next set of blades, coming from behind him, and started to somersault and roll on his shoulder down the circular slope. He held Batty against his chest and forced his shoulders out to try and keep his sole ally from being crushed by his tumbling form, or being cut by the blades. As he neared the end, he let out a startled yelp as a blade suddenly emerged and cut at his shoulder, tearing into his flesh and leaving a decent gash behind. He could feel the warmth of his blood trail down his arm, but he had little time to react outside of a grimace as he suddenly toppled head over heels into the center of the machine. He landed onto his back and literally rolled into a sitting position, his legs splayed out. His clothes were all tattered, his skin singed by the heat and his arm bleeding steadily. Bacchus gasped for air, feeling some amount of relief now that they were out of that hellish fall. Batty was panting just as heavily in his arms, and Bacchus held him out in his hands.

"I…I did just…hear you talk, just now…before…it swallowed us…" Bacchus said, still in some amount of disbelief. Batty looked up at him with a still awestruck look, surprised that they had even lived through that.

"Well of course you did, unless I'm a hallucination, and I think I woulda noticed if I was by now…" Batty said, climbing back onto his wobbling feet as Bacchus tried to stand as well. He was still shaking so badly that it was difficult to regain his composure, but after a few seconds, he managed to.

Literally inches in front of them was large vat that jutted downwards, where the wood was spat out by the tunnel they had just fallen out of and left to be unloaded. On the other side the vat was a semi-circle of small, metal staircases that went up to several doorways. These doorways appeared to be entrances into the bases of the smokestacks that rose threateningly from the top of the Leveler, placed there for maintenance and cleaning. Bacchus stood in awe for a moment, having never seen this massive interior before, and started to walk around the gapping bowel of the machine.

"Wha…where are you going…?" Batty asked, gulping as he looked down at the unceremonious pile of slaughtered trees below, cut into various shapes and sizes. Bacchus literally had to walk sideways around the slim walkway around the vat to make it to the other side.

"I…I think the only way out from here…is for me to climb out of one of the smokestacks…" Bacchus said. With the Leveler out of commission, for the moment, there weren't any toxic fumes coming out of these stacks. Batty had managed to find the Leveler from the fumes emitted from its idling engine, which was on the other side of the machine. If the generators used to make the Leveler mobile had still been operating, there would have been no way out. The fumes that these stacks emitted would have been lethal to Bacchus after only a moment or two, without any protection. He climbed one of the staircases laboriously, his legs still shaking from his previous encounter with the Leveler's blades. Batty sat perched on his shoulder, looking forlornly at the blood streaming down the boy's arm.

He opened the door to the farthest left smokestack; the interior was coated with soot that burned to the touch, but the air was relatively cleared out from the evening air overhead. As he looked up, through the narrow passage of the stack, he could see the ominous patterns of smoke overhead. At least it was a way out. He reached out in the little light that he had and grasped the grimy ladder that scaled the length of the stack, and started to climb.

"So…not the best of times for introductions, but do you have a name?" he heard the bat ask him, quietly.

"Uh…my name's Bacchus…" he replied, just as softly. "How about you?"  
"Well, they call me Batty Koda…or just Batty, for short…"

"Batty, eh? Well…it's nice to meet you, if nothing else but because I've been pretty alone in this whole situation…" Bacchus said, quietly, and Batty gave him a somewhat sad smile. This kid was starting to remind him of another human he knew…

Bacchus suddenly gasped and froze as something loomed overhead. Batty looked up as well and yelped in fear. Hexxus's ominous visage hovered right at the top of the smokestack that they'd been trying to climb out of. Hexxus cackled a bit and suddenly started to slither down towards them. Bacchus was so horrified that his hands slipped away from the metal bar of the ladder and he tumbled back down to the floor, slamming back against the door and crumpling down to a sitting position, his head throbbing from the impact. Hexxus's form suddenly loomed over them both, and Batty just stared at him fearfully, concealing himself behind Bacchus's head.

_"I have to give you some amount of credit…"_ Hexxus hissed at Bacchus, his foul breath spewing out of his mouth. Bacchus and Batty both hacked and choked from the toxicity of it_. "You somehow managed to survive being digested by this…wonderful machine of mine…"  
_Bacchus growled and looked angrily at the demonic form. "And I'll…keep surviving…long enough to…warn my cousin and the rest of Ferngully about you…" he spat. Hexxus just laughed and suddenly gripped Bacchus's chin in his acidic grasp. Bacchus grimaced and tried to pull away.

_"You won't be going anywhere, boy…"_ he said, and suddenly overhead the sound of twisting metal echoed down towards them. Bacchus looked up helplessly as Hexxus manipulated the metal near the top of the stack and created thick bars that blocked their escape, yet still gave them a terrible glimpse at the outside world they couldn't reach. Suddenly he heard the twisting of metal coming from the other stacks that were connected to the one he was standing in, and the door behind him locked and twisted painfully shut. He heard the clamor as the rest did the same. He was now confined to the bases of the smokestacks, all of them connected by small tunnels that you had to crawl through to get to the next stack. He felt his heart drop down into his stomach, and Batty was looking around with a hopelessly gaze on his face, trembling against the side of Bacchus's neck. Hexxus just smirked at them triumphantly as he started to rise away from them.

_"Heheh…you have until I bring this machine back to life once more…"_ Hexxus hissed as he rose out of view. _"And then…those glorious fumes and toxins will consume you until your lungs turn to ashes…"_ He then vanished from their view, disappearing between the bars and assimilating back into the entirety of the pollution that had gathered above the Leveler. Bacchus reached up and plucked Batty from his shoulder shakily, holding the small creature in his hands. He could feel Batty shaking.

"Wha…what are we supposed to do now…?" Batty asked, hoping there was another way out. But Bacchus just looked down at him with a terrified, and helpless expression.

"All…all we can do now is…wait…"


	8. Reunion

Outside of the trees, the other fairies were clamoring, wondering what was going on within the enclosed circle, but she couldn't hear them any longer. It was like this small patch of earth within the trees was somehow disconnected from the rest of the rainforest, sheltered from the distress and suffering that was slowly making its way towards them once more. But Crysta couldn't contemplate any of that right now; all she could do was stare, her mouth open in disbelief, at Magi's spirit-like silhouette hovering in the air before her. It felt like an eternity before she mustered the ability to speak once more.

"Oh Magi...I…I didn't think I'd ever get to see you again…" Crysta said, her voice soft and momentarily unsure. In her dreams, it was as though her mentor had never left them at all, even physically, though when she awoke she could feel only her presence and not her warm smile or reassuring touch.

Magi just smiled in her grandmotherly fashion, outstretching her arms to her. "Oh Crysta…when I departed from this world, I told you that I would never leave you, and I haven't…" she replied, and as she spoke her form seemed to shift and change from a translucent spirit into a physical form. Crysta smiled and embraced her almost immediately, content to know that she was here, if only for the time-being.  
But her happiness was short-lived, for she realized that Magi wouldn't have returned without having good reason to do so. After a moment of bliss, she pulled back from her and allowed the apprehension she felt to come to her face. When she did, she saw that Magi's own expression had turned very serious and grave, the same expression she had worn that last day she had seen her, when she had revealed to her the true purpose of the red Xs drawn on the trees.

"Magi…you…you know what's wrong, don't you…what's been going on in the rainforest…" Crysta murmured.

"Yes…I do, and that's why I've come back, so that I can warn all of you of what is coming…"

"It's Hexxus, isn't it?" Crysta said almost immediately, her tone more fearful and stressed than just a second ago. Somewhere, deep down in the midst of her strong suspicions, she had known it was _him_. His terrible, dark presence was so strong that she could sense it, even though he was still a distance away.

"Yes…and he is more powerful than he was the last time we encountered him. Over these years, even after his first defeat at my hands, he's been gaining power from all across the world. This place was his origin, but he's become strong enough to begin absorbing the corruption and gratuitous waste and pollution of all humans on this planet, far outside of our safe haven in Ferngully…" Magi explained, her tone soft but dark. Crysta listened in fear, but also intently. "His appearance two years ago was a mere warning of what he was capable of doing, and even though you managed to imprison him once again, he has become stronger…stronger than our magic can contain…"

Crysta looked taken aback; Magi had always taught her that their power to harness nature and creation was the only thing that could stop Hexxus and his force of destruction; if he was more powerful than them now, how would they be able to stop him? "But…but Magi, how…how can that be…?"

"In order for nature to exist as it was when it was first formed, creation and destruction have to coexist in an even balance…unfortunately, Hexxus and his lust for devastation and death have always forced myself and the other creators before me to keep the balance shifted in our favor, so that he wouldn't be able to overcome us, as he desired to. But…because of the excess of the humans, across the entire world, Hexxus's power has surpassed our own…"

Crysta looked from Magi down to the ground below, feeling a terrible sense of helplessness. "Then…then there's nothing we can do…?" she asked, softly.

Magi smiled faintly. "Do not despair or give up hope, my young one…" she said, touching the top of Crysta's head affectionately. "I said that he is more powerful than our magic, but…we fairies are not alone on this planet, now, are we…?"

"But humans are the ones who have caused Hexxus to become so powerful…they don't care about the earth and the plants and creatures that live amongst them…even though there are humans like Zak who do care about the Earth just as much as us, there…there may never be enough strength from them to keep Hexxus from destroying this place, and then moving on."

"It will not be as easy as it was last time to defeat him Crysta…" Magi said. "Hexxus has become strong enough to physically spread his corrosion and poison into the minds of humans…" she closed her eyes momentarily, visualizing what she had seen in her metaphysical state, outside of reality. "He has possessed them, turned them into his slaves…the logging company that Zak's kin was working with, they have all been removed of their humanity…all but one…and that is his cousin, the one who stubbornly refused his cousin's advice…" she said. "He is trapped there, with them, within the new leveler that the humans have brought with them…"

"But…but if he has control over the humans, how can we-?"

"You have to free the humans from his grasp…" Magi said, before she could finish her question; her tone was becoming more urgent now. "If he succeeds here in Ferngully and strengthens enough that he can maintain his hold over humans, permanently, all will fall to him…" her voice seemed to grow and escalate as she spoke with such gravity, echoing faintly off the trees around them. "Hexxus may gain sustenance from the faded morality of humans and the destruction of nature across the world, but Ferngully is the pinnacle, the zenith of creation because of the purity that still exists here…if he conquers it, and ravages the land beyond repair, there will be nothing left to stop him. This place holds the last of our kind, and it is through our union with the humans that he can be stopped…that is why he caused our races to separate, to forget one another through violence and fear and forced isolation, and that is why he is so determined to destroy us, to keep that merger from ever happening once more…"

"But the humans don't believe in us anymore, we're just stories, fantasies to them."

"You're right, we aren't real to them anymore, and neither is Hexxus…" Magi replied. "To them, we are just whimsical, fictional creatures, and Hexxus is just the smoke billowing from a factory near their home…what they need to see is that we do exist, once more, even if there is risk involved for us. They need to see that we exist in every seed and grain of soil, and that Hexxus exists in every particle of filth that is cast into the sky. The humans have distanced themselves from the truth, to the point where they live apart from it, completely unaware."

"But…there are billions of humans on the earth, now…how can we convince them in time that Hexxus and we fairies are real before it's too late…?" Crysta said.

"My dear, that is a feat that will never happen in its entirety…there will always be humans who are corrupt, and do not care about the planet…what you must do is reveal yourself to the humans who are under his control, and use your power to free them. He is working through their toiling and through their machine; without humans, Hexxus himself would wither and die. That is where he is dependent…if you manage to remove his presence in the humans here, before he can destroy us here, then he can be stopped. If he manages to destroy Ferngully…then the balance will never be restored. The origin of creation will have been lost, and he will be able to roam free and kill whatever he pleases. It is here, and nowhere else, that the balance must be restored strongly enough that Hexxus will not be able to resurface."

Crysta felt overpowered by her message, though she understood what Magi was trying to convey. If Hexxus was able to keep his hold over these humans, and eliminate the potential alliance that could defeat him, then there would be no way to stop him. If they could halt him here, and manage to save the humans who had been overtaken by him, then they could find a way to imprison him once more, this time strongly enough to keep him from reemerging. The fact that humans around the world would need to embrace nature and creation once more was something that they had to strive for in the future; right now, they needed to make it so that future was possible for them.

"Magi…I know what we need to do…" Crysta said, watching as Magi's form started to become transparent and wispy once more. "But you said that Zak's cousin is trapped within the leveler…how will we rescue him when he is so deep within that machine?"

"Zak is the key to all of this, Crysta, even to rescuing his cousin…" she replied. "He is the first human to ever ally himself to us after the great divide, to realize and accept that we are real, that all this is real…he began this conflict when Hexxus was released, and he will be a crucial part of ending this one as well. Just remember, Crysta, that a part of me lives within him too. Though he may be human, he has gained the same power and perception of our kind, and he also has knowledge of the humans and their own creations, both good and bad. Use what he knows to your advantage; Hexxus uses humans as puppets and slaves, but we must use the one who is our friend as a strong ally in order to defeat him."

Crysta nodded, but looked forlorn as Magi's spirit started to fade. "Oh Magi…I wish you could stay and help us…" She remembered wanting her to stay so strongly before, and the situation hadn't been as dire as it was now.

"I know, Crysta…but I will always be here with you, as I have been since I left…but it was my time to depart this world, physically. You are the new core of our power, the central creator of our race…you hold the power through which all others are able to create and prosper. Never let Hexxus take that from you, though he may try and tempt and corrupt you as he has the humans…" Magi warned. "His promises are all lies with an ounce of truth, and he is poisonous the most to us who know who he is yet still might be seduced by him. When you are weak, remember what it is you love most about Ferngully, and those who live within and without out, so that his lies will never cloud what you truly have and need…"

With those final words, Magi lifted up towards the dim light of the moon and stars that shone up above the trees, filtering down through the gaps towards them, and began to disappear. Though her words had been very serious and foreboding, she still had a smile on her face, brimming with subtle confidence in her protégé and those that aided her. Crysta watched in reverence but also in mourning, seeing Magi pass once more into another realm of being, outside of her reach. She knew it was true, that Magi would always be with them, but seeing her again made her realize once more how much she missed having her there physically, where she could comfort and guide her.

"I promise Magi…I won't let everything you managed to do before be in vain, I won't let Hexxus consume Ferngully, or harm the humans further…" she said softly, just as Magi's image faded away.

Once Magi had vanished into the night and the trees, the circle began to part. The sounds of the fairies waiting anxiously outside, and the movement and churning of the life of the forest started to reach her once more. She turned, and could see Zak sitting amongst the countless points of light that glimmered from each fairy sitting atop or around him. It was then she could see, as Magi had said to her, that Zak himself glowed faintly as well just as the rest of them did, filled with the magic that they had preserved for so many years.

With concern on his face, Zak stood up, carefully, and walked to Crysta. Pips and the Beetle Boys remained on his shoulders, looking equally eager to hear what Crysta had discovered during her commune with Magi's spirit. Zak held out his hand gently and Crysta stood upon it as he brought her close, speaking to her quietly. "So…what did Magi tell you, Crysta?"

Crysta looked at all of them silently a moment, trying to figure out where to start, since Magi had shared so much with her. "It…it's a lot to tell…but I suppose I should start with telling you what it is that's coming this way…"


End file.
